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Rent-a-Box Services Make Moving Easier for Some

Robert Theryoung, right, and Liam Daul collect bins after a move in Summit, N.J.Credit
Aaron Houston for The New York Times

FOR Sara Schmidt, an actress, moving to a new apartment used to involve a tiresome quest for cardboard boxes. She picked up castoffs from the street and canvassed her local liquor stores for others — and even then, she still found herself buying expensive new boxes and supplies like packing tape.

But this fall, when she moved to Hoboken from Midtown West, Ms. Schmidt, who is in the cast of “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, took a far less labor-intensive approach: she rented stackable plastic moving boxes from a new service called Bin-It.

Bin-It and a similar service, Jugglebox Moving, have recently entered the New York moving market. Both deliver stacks of sturdy boxes and pick them up after the move is complete.

The boxes can be ordered online or by phone. Bin-It’s price for a one-bedroom move, with 25 boxes, is $109 plus a $30 service fee. At Jugglebox, a one-bedroom move with 35 boxes is $129. Other necessities, including wardrobe boxes, packing paper, labels and dollies, are available from each service.

Both services recommend that people hire movers to transport the boxes and larger items like furniture. Robert Theryoung, one of Bin-It’s founders, said using the service could save money with movers who charge by the hour, because his company’s rigid cartons can be stacked four to five feet high, reducing the number of trips.

Mr. Theryoung started Bin-It with a high-school friend, Chris Walsh, and Jef Walker. The idea stemmed from Mr. Walsh’s small company making T-shirts for musicians and artists, which relied on plastic containers to transport gear. The concept seemed easily transferrable to residential moves.

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Surinder Singh founded Jugglebox after helping a friend who had just moved within Brooklyn. “There were a ton of cardboard boxes all over her apartment,” Mr. Singh said. She complained about the effort involved in assembling, disassembling and disposing of them. The move was just a few blocks away, which “amplified the waste,” Mr. Singh said. Reusable boxes struck him as so much more convenient, economical and environmentally friendly.

Both services started last year, serving New York City and northern New Jersey. Both plan to expand geographically.

And both are working out some kinks. Bin-It is about to charge that $30 service fee upon reservation, instead of requiring payment in full upfront. That is because people are often afraid to commit because of uncertain moving dates, Mr. Walsh said.

Shortly after Jugglebox opened for business, so many orders poured in that “we could barely handle the demand,” Mr. Singh said. Because boxes filled with books or china are heavy, Jugglebox plans to add boxes in a smaller size.

Another Bin-It client, Maria Elena Romagnolo de Laurentiis, a designer from Italy, moved last fall with her family of four, plus their “tremendous amount of stuff,” to Westchester County from the Upper East Side. She bought Bin-It’s four-bedroom package, along with five wardrobe bins, for nearly $400.

“I had an argument with my husband,” she said, “because at the end, when you see the bill, it looks maybe high as a number.” But considering “how much trouble you will have to get the cardboard, buy the tape and cut the tape every time you close and seal the box,” she said, she felt it was a bargain.

A version of this article appears in print on January 8, 2012, on Page RE2 of the New York edition with the headline: Reusable Goes Residential. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe